


Cheer

by HeatherGiesbrecht



Category: The Night Manager (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Bedrooms, Blood, Children, Complete, Dreams and Nightmares, Explicit Language, Extended Scene, Extramarital Affairs, Fights, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Minor Injuries, Non-Consensual Blood Drinking, Non-Consensual Groping, Obsessive Behavior, Possessive Behavior, Psychic Abilities, Sadness, Scents & Smells, Slash, Spoilers, Sympathy, Threats of Violence, War, Watching Someone Sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-05-29
Packaged: 2018-06-04 05:04:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6642409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeatherGiesbrecht/pseuds/HeatherGiesbrecht
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Normally other people’s nightmares didn’t bother him. However, this was not a normal day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Cheer

It’d been easy to follow the mixed scent of cigarette smoke, mild cologne and stifled nervousness here. Roper breezed under the door and into Pine’s little white-walled and near spartan bedroom then reformed from the mist. The sun had barely been up an hour and the human was already fast asleep. Not peacefully, no, but he was most definitely asleep.

Good God, he was sick of Jed’s blood. Every single time now it tasted blander than Great-grandmother’s scones. There was no flavour anymore, just copper mixed with a sickening sweetness. Of course, it was also an evolutionary defence mechanism for just that purpose. Over the years he had taken blood from the old day and night managers to stave off boredom. Since Pine was new, why not continue his little tradition ?

As he crossed to stand over the cot, Pine shuddered and the scent of fear filled the room.

“Well, Pine, what’s with you, hmm ? You’re not daunted by my entourage and I arriving, yet some little nightmare can frighten you ?”

Roper pressed two fingers against the tanned neck. Bite someone at the height of a nightmare and the shock would wake them. Pretty as the sight would be he would much rather not have to restrain Pine. When Pine’s pulse had slowed he leaned down and kissed it softly before letting his fangs lengthen. First the tang of copper followed by an overwhelming bitterness that mellowed into a gentle sweetness.

Hmm, he hadn’t expected that much bitterness considering how young Pine was. Curiosity had him delving into Pine’s nightmare. Immediately, heat and humidity choked him and the sun blazing off pale sand blinded him.

“Bartlett, Bartlett ?! C’mon, mate, you’re not doing this. You can’t die in a fucking desert because...because, well, it’s a fucking desert and your arse is already baked. So, so, it doesn’t make any damn sense ! Corkoran !”  
  
He squinted against the light to see Pine crouched in the sand holding a blood-covered light-brown haired man. Bartlett’s upper chest and throat had been eviscerated by bullets. A short ways away there was a gravel road, a stopped convoy and bodies all around.

“He’s gone, Pine.” Roper surprised himself by saying the words along with the man he assumed was Corkoran.

“No.”

Well, that was enough of that. Roper retreated from the nightmare and retracted his fangs. Normally other people’s nightmares didn’t bother him. However, this was not a normal day. Poor little Pine. Better for him not to remember it, really. Replace it with something cheerier like, say, a nice walk in the park. Two seconds of psychic fiddling did it and he patted the bare shoulder. “No need to thank me, really, we need to stick together. The only one I can really understand in this blasted place. You have a nice day now, Pine.”

Roper breezed and reformed outside. It was snowing yet again as he returned to the hotel whistling a tune.


	2. Wince

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try a chapter per episode and end it roughly the same as the actual episode.

Roper couldn’t quite hold back his wince. Pine’s face wasn’t as pretty with a great black-eye, a cut above that and a shattered nose. Mind that he’d gleaned that from only a passing glance. But he’d be damned if all that blood didn’t smell good. It was a good thing then that the chap splayed out in the kitchen wouldn’t really notice himself missing a bit of blood what with the concussion and broken arm. Pine smelled like worry, a bit of fear and, yes, there was that cologne again. Well, now that Pine had not only fed him but also saved his boy by all rights he supposed that he owed the man a favour, which it seemed would be leaving the police out of things.

A few instructions to Frisky, Tabby, and the others later, he crouched beside Pine. He could hear that one or two of Pine’s ribs had cracked as well. It would not be a fun time healing from all this, but that was what painkillers were for, he supposed. Not that human painkillers worked on him, but it was rather amusing to simulate the effects he saw them have on others.

“We’ll take care of you.”

Hmm, Jonathan Pine or Thomas Quince ? Six months ago in that nightmare Corkoran had never called Pine, well, Pine or had he ? A lot had happened since then and the memory was honestly a bit fuzzy. Later on he’d have to get one of the boys to do a background check on both names just in case. One little psychic nudge had Pine lapsing into unconsciousness.

Some feet away, Danny asked, “Is he going to be all right, Daddy ?”

“I think so, if we’re careful on the way over, at least. Obviously, Pine’s a good sort and I won’t let a thing happen to him.” Until he’s better.

“Does that mean he’s coming home with us after the hospital ?”

“Not right away, no, but he will be staying for a while.”

Waves lapped against the dock as he got up and moved back to stand with Jed and Danny.

Jed murmured, “I want to wait with him after the doctor’s done. He could freak out to find himself alone in a strange place after this.”

“Strange place ? He’ll be in a bleeding hospital, they all lookalike. You can wait with Pine if you like, but I’m going to take Danny home, have some food made, then put him to bed.”

“Can’t I go with ? He’ll want to know he didn’t get bashed about for nothing, won’t he ?”

Impulsively, he turned to pick up Danny and smoothed his hair. “I think that he would appreciate seeing you more when he’s fully awake, just so that he doesn’t think you’re a hallucination. Besides, you won’t have to wait very long, just a few days, is all. In the meantime you should figure out something to do for him since those men would have killed you if he’d not been there. Now, Danny, I’m going to put you in the boat, you’re going to be a good little man and stay there, and daddy’s going to be back in a few minutes.”

Bloody fuck all this had ruined their last full night together before yet another business meeting called him away. At least by the time he returned home Pine should have arrived, unless his health had taken an unexpected turn for the worse. It was really too bad that background checks didn’t include, “So-and-so cursed in the last six months by a bitchy witch for pissing off at the wrong moment.” How else would you explain Pine’s winding up here and getting the ever-living shit kicked out of him for trying to help someone ?

* * *

 

Four days later

Danny chattered away as they left the helicopter pad. “That Pine fellow or whatever his name is woke up for a while earlier. I couldn’t think of anything else to do, so I read him my squid book. I like him, he doesn’t tell me to shut up like Tabby does sometimes.”

That dolt had told his boy to shut up ? It seemed they would need to have a little chat about just who was who in their relationship. Tabby and Frisky hadn’t said anything about Pine causing trouble, but, doubtlessly, they’d hit him with the fizzy threat by now. Such a childish sounding thing and yet it was supposedly very painful. Well, he would just have to go see Pine to find out if it was actually needed. Needless to say, he would prefer that not be the case.

“Since I’ve not had time to thank him yet, I think I’m going to go see how our dashing hero is doing. Would you two like to join me ?”

“I checked on him just before Danny did, so I don’t think I need to.”

All the better for him as he could reach the room far faster without having to pretend at humanity. A minute or two later, he opened the door to see Pine stretched out on the curtain less four-poster. Softly, he let it go and walked around to the bed’s far side, Pine’s side. The human was near pretty as normal with the blood cleaned off and the cut stitched up. The only things that hindered it were the remnants of the black-eye and the plaster on his nose. Whoever had decided on Pine’s shirt should’ve gotten a raise simply because the quarter-sleeved shirt showed off the veins so nicely. They taunted him so close to the surface that he could practically taste the blood. What was one oh-so tiny drink ? Only soft breathing, the scent of calmness, and Danny’s words stopped him. Instead he took the blanket where it lay around Pine's waist and tucked it under Pine's chin to cover the offending veins.

Roper grumbled, “I’ll let you sleep now, but tomorrow you’re going to tell me just who the hell you are.” as he turned and left. He had better things to do.


	3. Tree

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've jumped around so much and between so many places that I don't know how long Pine's been at the villa anymore. So if the days are completely screwed up it's all my fault. There were a lot of potential scenes so hopefully you'll enjoy the ones I went with.

Roper had to admit it was fun just smashing the tennis ball about with Pine. If only because it was even lovelier to see Pine actually exerting himself instead of laying about. Not that taking a shower earlier didn’t count but as enjoyable as it was that was a rather different matter. What was interesting was that Pine’s Corkoran and his Corky were the same person, quite the small world. Almost suspiciously small.

Good thing then that the fake Thomas Quince was no more and they could have a bit of honesty. Unfortunately that meant Pine would have to come to him if he wanted a new identity. Well, unless, he was kind enough to make the man a new passport as a gift. Hmm, he rather liked the whole tree motif, but what to pick, what to pick ? There was Oak, Ash or Beech. Okay, the last one wasn’t quite fair since Pine hadn’t been a bitch and even he wasn’t quite that cruel.

When he caught the tennis ball that was going at full speed Pine flinched.

“You alright, Roper ?”

“Worried about me already ? That bastard must’ve smashed you harder than you realized. Don’t worry, it’s nothing a few hours of rest can’t cure.”

Attuned as he was to Pine at the moment, the better to predict his moves, of course, he heard Pine’s heartbeat previously calm considering the level of their activity speed up. Ha, so Pine wasn’t quite as solid as he seemed. Then again neither was that stupid bitch of a maid, she’d been eyeing Pine. His Pine. No one put an eye to Pine unless they wanted to lose one of their own.

  
Evening

Unlike in Pine’s dream months ago, here the sand was cool, the sunlight was fading and waves lapped at Pine’s feet, Pine had drawn his legs up to his chest. Meanwhile, he stood barely a foot away in the shallows, contemplating Pine as he smoked a cigar. Quite the romantic spot if he said so himself. Damn his, “No phones, no postcards.” rule but if he wasn’t going to obey it then who would ?

Speaking of obeying things, there was the idiot over in Morocco. The idiot who'd had the gall to request that he be there in-person to arrange a shipment that was supposed to go to America. Him, when he had Dans to groom, Tabbys to terrorize and Pines to obsess over, him ! The nerve of some people. Good God, where was a witch when you wanted one ? Off getting buggered probably. At least he knew who's blood he was going to drink tomorrow night.

* * *

   
A day and night later

One flight from Morocco later, Roper reformed inside his and Jed’s bedroom. Moonlight spilled over her but he wasn’t interested in her. What he was interested in was those flowers. They hadn’t been on the table before. Of course, he walked over and bent to sniff them sifting through the scents from newest to oldest. It revealed one very interesting thing; Pine had left them and he’d been snooping. The scent was stale by a few hours and it’d been overlaid multiple times by Jed.

Just what was Pine looking for ? In following the scent he found it circled around the room and eventually to his office door. When he laid a hand on the alarm he saw no image of Pine pressing the buttons. Pine hadn’t gotten the code then, so someone must have told him about the test time. While Tabby and Frisky weren’t keen on Pine the intensity of Corky’s dislike was rather suspect. Former lovers gone south perhaps ? It seemed likely. Either way, the more important thing was - were Pine and Corkoran spying on him ? Were they working for whoever was already tracing him or were they doing it independently ? At the moment though he didn’t think they’d found anything of importance.

Well, no matter what something needed doing about Corky because if the man was telling Pine his secrets that just wouldn’t do. At least the transfer of company ownership paperwork was already drawn up. It only needed one little signature now, a certain blond’s. Unlike the tree he was surnamed for Pine wasn’t all dark, he was a mix of light and dark, more like a birch, really. Wait just one bloody moment. A birch tree as in A. Birch. Goddamn, it was perfect. All his man had to do was add a common first name, like, say, Andrew and ta-da there was a new passport. Since Pine’d been in the media lately he’d be scrutinized if the passport looked too shiny. It would need to be roughed up to make it more believable. Pine could do that.

* * *

  
Next afternoon

“Welcome to the family.”

Roper held out his hand for Pine to shake, which Pine did and he grinned again as his eyes slid over the papers. Jonathan Pine wasn't fully his, yet, but Andrew Birch was. Andrew Birch was all his.


	4. Appetite

Roper stroked Jed’s thigh. She was covered in Pine’s scent - her forehead, nose, lips, dress, thighs...cunt. Someone’d been a naughty little girl. Not, of course, that he could blame her.

“That little headache of yours, self-induced ?”

“It felt so good.” 

A seemingly positive non-answer. Since she hadn’t said no obviously she didn’t care about further soreness, not even enough to lie about having used a toy. All this time and she was still a whore - one cock wasn’t enough to satisfy her at the moment. She wanted more, so he would give it to her.

* * *

The next night

Roper knew everything revolved around trust and he was choosing to believe that Pine would come clean at a later date. Once again the younger’s pulse was thudding like a hummingbird’s, irresistible.

He took an unconscious step forward. “We all have appetites, Pine, even if we deny them. You know that you have one and you wish that you didn’t. You fear violence, you fear your memories of it, and yet you hunger all the same. Your little scrap with Corky, it got the old adrenaline pumping and now again with the gun. You still remember the feeling of that trigger under your finger, remember the time when with one little squeeze you could save a life by taking another and you remember the power it gave you. You could’ve blown every single one of us away with that rifle had you merely chosen to do so and yet you denied yourself that. I have to admit it, you’re stronger than I am.”

“What’d you mean ?”

Sleep, sleep, fuck sleeping prey. Where the fuck was the fun in that ? Roper had to admit Pine had very good reflexes to even reach for the glass, much less be able to smash it in his face. But what could a tiny bit of glass do to him ? Not a thing. Not one bloody thing since he’d changed. When Pine tried slamming his jaw shut he grabbed hold of Pine’s shoulder and squeezed.

“Ah ! Ah, m-mph.” Pine slid to his knees on the stone, eyes widening in terror at the unholy thing before him.

One second was all it took for him to slide that hand across Pine’s shoulder blade to grip his nape, to still that throat and sink his fangs in. Coppery blood, bitter fear, a burst of citrus-y adrenaline and he snarled with vicious glee as Pine struggled. Those palms and fists might as well’ve been feathers for how much he felt them. The same as bullets, knives, sarin gas, most weapons, really. Only once did Pine try to wrench himself away before he went limp to avoid ripping his jugular vein.

What he loved about the human brain was it’s utter inability to accept certain things. Pine’s brain, if it didn’t repress the memory, would turn it into a relatively easy to dismiss nightmare. So what would Corky have given for one night with Pine ? One night to feel those muscles under his hands, to hear the gasps that currently left Pine’s lips ? Anything.

* * *

A few hours later, morning...

Hmm, the police showing up the day after Corky made an arse of himself now why could that be ? Roper didn’t have the foggiest. 

Oh no, Corky, don’t openly grope Pine’s arse in front of twenty people after making them think your as mad as the bastard offspring of a mad hatter and a March hare over a fucking lobster and not expect the police to show up eventually. That fucking randy cunt would’ve ruined everything if not for Pine’s warning. Well, the cops wouldn’t catch them now. If Pine had in fact been working with Corky it seemed that was dead in the water. He repressed a smile to see Pine once again bright-eyed by adrenaline as they sped off into the streets of Istanbul. Just like show business, the deal would go on.


	5. Bartlett

Much as Roper would have loved to just watch Pine shower it was even more intriguing to find out why Pine was feeling guilty and angry. The sojourn into Pine’s mind left him standing with Pine and Corkoran in the middle of a night-blanketed army base encircled by the unconscious forms of four other soldiers.

Pine tried to catch his breath. “I never thought I’d say this but...thank you for the help.”

Corkoran snorted, “Figured I’d save you from bitch duty. You should’ve expected it since you are the closest thing to a woman most of ’em have seen in months.”

“And there goes my gratitude. Good night, Corkoran.”

“Sweet dreams, princess.”

He followed Pine through the camp to a tent where Bartlett stood waiting. The hazel eyed man opened the tent for Pine.

“You don’t look so good, mate.”

“I nearly got molested before Corkoran helped me.”

“What happened then ?”

“Then Corkoran opened his mouth to call me a bitch and a princess. What do I do about him, Bartlett ? Would he be doing this if I hadn’t rejected him ?”

“Corkoran is the opposite of everyone else - he insults the ones he likes and stays silent around the ones he hates. It’d be even worse if you’d said yes. You didn’t do anything to lead to his obsession, it is not your fault.” The light-brown haired soldier sighed, “You just barely got here and everyone knows Corkoran is a lying arse. It’d be like a pair of machine guns trying to stop a payload of napalm, impossible. You wanna talk I’m here.”

Roper blinked confused as the memory turned into a swirl of dust because when it faded he sat on the edge of a bed. Pine lay on his stomach covering his head with his arms while Corkoran drew circles across Pine’s bare shoulders.

“He wasn’t that bad really, I mean, even I liked him.”

A muffled, “Piss off, Corky.”

“No, who knows what you’d go and do if I did that. I don’t want you doing something stupid and Bartlett wouldn’t either. Besides, how disappointed do you think dear Daddy Pine would be ? Actually, I’m getting us some drinks, you move an inch and I’m licking your bollocks and you wouldn’t want that.”

Roper withdrew from the memories and the showers. So Corky hadn’t always been an arse to Pine. Interesting.

* * *

 A day or two later...

“I think he might’ve met with someone.” The blatant lie echoed in Roper’s ears as he stood watching Pine sleep in The Nefertiti Hotel.

He’d been wrong, Pine and Corkoran had still been working together with Burr until Pine’d gotten fed up and killed Corky. Unless the circumstance was that Corky had caught Jed and Pine and threatened to out the affair. The sex didn’t mean anything, unless Jed had Pine’s kid, of course, but the kiss in the tent meant that somewhere down the line they’d gotten serious. Jed was his, Pine was his, they were not each others, goddamit !

No matter how much he wanted to, “I can’t ignore you now, Jonathan, you made sure of that.” Either Pine would confess his treachery and be forgiven or he wouldn’t. He would hate to watch the man’s time run out.


	6. Fox

Yes, Roper understood Corky’s frustrations with Pine all too clearly now. The sneaky transfer of funds, the explosions, Burr’s appearance, and all that after making him think Corky was the one manipulating everyone.

Once again turning to mist he slid under the bathroom door to join the dispersing steam on the other side. A drop of blood, a hissed curse and he used Pine’s distraction to reform and wrap an arm around that throat. “I told you I’d see you again, Jonathan. My pretty Judas, my beautiful bastard. If you’d just told the truth on the plane we could’ve avoided all this.”

Pine froze then exclaimed, “How the fuck did you do that ?! Y-you can’t do that.”

He licked the blood drop that was coursing down Pine’s cheek, scraped the pale flesh with his fangs. “Did you wish our time at the port was just a horrid little nightmare, Pine ? Well, that’s exactly what I felt in the company of your vampire hunter friends, the White Circle. Do you know how long it took me to heal from that, do you ? Weeks, bloody, fucking weeks. I nearly killed someone because of you !”

Pine snarled and thrashed trying to break his grip then he noticed the cologne. No, it had to be something else to appear now, it had to be. Impulsively, he bent to sniff Pine’s neck. “My God, you are special. I thought Corky was too drunk to admit that he had magic, but it wasn’t him.” He looked up in the mirror, Pine’s eyes were bright against the earthen brown walls. “Oh no, no, it was you, it’d just rubbed off on him from drinking together, hadn’t it ? You might not’ve liked Corky but he was the only one who understood the shit you’d gone through and your sole drinking mate since Bartlett died. That magic is how you got Horace to hire you without checking your references, you used magic to make everyone like you. As a consequence, the ones who’d normally be attracted to you would be more likely to make a move and keep from noticing anything you didn’t want. You sly fox, I’m going to fucking kill you.”

Pine was still trying to escape now by getting leverage off the sink. “I don’t know what...your talking about. Magic doesn’t exist, vampires can’t exist.”

“Oh don’t give me that again. You know its real. Why do you think your mum left ? I’m guessing she couldn’t handle a trained wizard trying to defend himself from something that wasn’t there. Just like I’m guessing Jack Pine wasn’t murdered for a few bottles of Guinness and a promised quickie or that wasn’t the whole deal. It was probably revenge for a curse, wizards and witches can be real pricks sometimes. I thought you’d been cursed, but now I realize it was just me.”

Overhead the bathroom fan whirred to a stop. Simultaneously, Pine’s feet hit the floor and he slumped. “Maybe my dad was a prick, maybe he wasn’t, either way, he was still better than you. Sophie didn’t deserve to die.”

Roper slid his other arm around Pine‘s waist to completely immobilize him. A sneer crossed his lips. “Sophie Allacan, that jumped-up twit ? That’s part of why you killed Corky isn’t it ?”

“Fuck you, he was an arse and Sophie did nothing to him. Why do you do that ? Jed, Charlotte, Sophie, why do you treat them like nothing ?”

“Because they are nothing. Now, you, Jonathan, your special so I’m going to make you scream, cry, whisper, and whimper for mercy and just when you think you’re going to die I’m going to change you. After we’re going to do it over and over until I’m satisfied you’ve learned your lesson and to hammer it home your going to heal on the blood of whatever descendant of darling Jed and yourself I can find. In the meantime, do you want some fizzy ? I brought a couple with me they’re down in the kitchen.”

“No !”

“Well, Corky would want you to have some, so I think we’re going to go with Corky on this one. Eventually, you’re going to learn, Jonathan Pine, that you belong to me. Mine for eternity.”

Hmm, straw or no straw ? Maybe he’d alternate between them. Cheerful as a bird in a bush he swept Pine up, kicked the bathroom door down then made his way into the kitchen. This was going to be fun. Bloody fun.


	7. Epilogue: Tame

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was throwing around a few versions of the epilogue and finally settled on this one. Thanks for reading.

“Every time I try to die, even when I’m not in the Chamber, he’s giving me blood and it’s goddamned infuriating. I don’t know what to do, Jed.”

“Hello, Jed, darling. How’ve you been ? Wait, you haven’t been able to answer that question in...oh, what is it, something like 4,000 years ? Colour me surprised that you haven’t resorted to necromancy yet, Pine.”

Roper set the cooler beside Jed’s long disintegrated gravestone. What’d once led to a nice tree, a graceful drop-off and a lake now plunged abruptly into an in-land sea. The sea was new, well, if at 2,000 years old it could still be called new.

Pine shook his head. “I couldn’t do that to her, Roper, not in a mill-, not ever. I couldn’t have taken her from Danny not when they just got to see each other again.”

The memory still irritated him. Poor Danny barely 30 years old when some drunk off his arse fuck went and plowed right into him. There’d not even been enough unmangled body parts left for an open casket and the fuck hadn’t even apologized to Jed. The only good that’d come of it’d been his and Pine’s bonding while tearing that flea-bollocked fuck limb from limb. He still had the heart kicking around in a jar of formaldehyde back in Mallorca. Oh sure he’d tamed Pine a bit, but not fully, oh no, it was too glorious seeing Pine let loose like when he’d been covered head-to-toe in blood wailing on some poor vampiric smuck in the last Vampire vs Wizard War.

He bent to open the cooler and extracted a bottle of champagne-laced blood. “Well then, shall I propose a toast to Her Majesty, Evelyn ? May she rule New Britain forever.”

“Only because you told her where my friends were so she could execute them ! A thousand wizards and witches died in the follow-up raids, a thousand !”  
  
Pain and Pine. One was his favourite thing, the other not so much as Pine knocked him to the ground. The bottle finally shattered as Pine took his first swing. Some time later Pine stopped beating him and collapsed.

Roper reached up to stroke Pine’s now blood-flecked cheek. “You know, Pine, if you wanted to go to that much effort sex would’ve been a far better outlet and more fun.” 

“I’m not fucking you tonight. I’m leaving. Cheers, Richard.”

Ooh, first name, Pine was serious. Ah well, Pine would come crawling back in 500 years. Pine always did.


End file.
